Characteristic Excitation Taper for Ultrawideband Tightly Coupled Antenna Arrays
- 31 January 2012
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
- Vol. 60 (4), 1777-1784
- https://doi.org/10.1109/tap.2012.2186269
Abstract
We propose a novel technique to calculate a quasi- optimal aperture excitation for finite size, ultrawideband arrays. The approach is based on using the characteristic modes of the array's mutual impedance matrix. Unlike standard excitation tapers, primarily used for beam shaping, the proposed characteristic mode taper provides for wideband matching of all array elements, including those at the edges of the finite array. As such, it maximizes aperture efficiency and is particularly attractive for finite size, tightly coupled antenna arrays. Our method solely relies on the N × N mutual impedance matrix of the array which is precomputed (or measured). We demonstrate this novel excitation method for an 8 × 8 array of tightly coupled dipole elements. When compared to uniform excitation, the characteristic mode excitation achieves very low VSWRs for all elements over a large bandwidth. Improvements in realized gain are also demonstrated. Due to its simplicity, this new method can be incorporated into a design process to optimize element and array geometries, leading to further performance improvements.Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Eigenfunctions of composite Hermitian operators with application to discrete and continuous radiating systemsIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1982
- Pattern synthesis for loaded N-port scatterersIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1974
- Modal analysis of loaded N-port scatterersIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1973
- Control of radar scattering by reactive loadingIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1972
- Characteristic modes for dielectric and magnetic bodiesIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1972
- Computation of characteristic modes for conducting bodiesIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1971
- Optimization of linear arrays for broadband signalsIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1966
- Gain optimization for arbitrary antenna arraysIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1965
- The optimum directivity of uniformly spaced broadside arrays of dipolesIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 1964
- A Current Distribution for Broadside Arrays Which Optimizes the Relationship between Beam Width and Side-Lobe LevelProceedings of the IRE, 1946